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Ryō Kurokiba
Ryō Kurokiba (黒木場 リョウ Kurokiba Ryō) is a 92nd Tōtsuki Generation Student and Alice Nakiri's aide. Appearance Ryō has a well built body. His notable traits include his long, unkempt black hair and his red eyes which has bags around them, giving Ryō wild appearance overall. For the most part, Ryō's facial appearance makes him appear lazy and slow. However, his facial appearance drastically changes when he ties on his bandana, causing his demeanor to become much sharper and fierce. His new persona is much more intimidating than his standard demeanor. Ryō wears a standard Tōtsuki Uniform, however he tends to keep his jacket unbuttoned and does not wear the standard tie. He also wears a dark colored tank-top under his uniform. Like Sōma, Ryō has a signature piece of headwear that he wears on occasion. He uses a long flame patterned bandana which he wears when he wants to have a more serious, intimidating look. When he is not wearing it, it is tied around his left wrist. His cooking unform is generally a sleeveless chinese styled top. He also wears wristbands. In his youth, much of his traits remained the same, though his hair was much shorter. He still had his trademark bandana but his general outfit was a long sleeved shirt, long pants, and a white apron whenever he cooked. Personality For the most part, Ryō is normally very slow, lazy, and gloomy. His general demeanor lacks any sort of interest on what is going on around him, but he remains attentive to the needs of Alice. Because of the bond the two formed in their youth, Ryō is obedient to Alice's requests and protects her from any sort of threats. Many have likened his relationship to her like a dog protecting his master. His speech is formal and simple, but slow. However, Ryō has a much more passionate personality that only emerges when he wears his signature bandana or any sort of tight fitting headgear like a swim cap. This new demeanors is much more bold, wild, and untamed, akin to a wild beast. His facial expressions also become much more savage and can instantly intimidate most with a single glance. His speech is also much more aggressive as he has no qualms as to whom he talks to. Even in his youth, his "mad dog" persona could intimidate even the most sea battered sailors and seasoned ruffian cooks into submission. Ryō considers all kitchens as a battlefield with the food a chef makes as a representation of their power. He ironically loathes bonds between chefs as he believes that such soft feelings weakens a chef's true capabilities. To Ryō, making a consumer submit to the dishes one makes is the only thing important for a chef. History Ryō grew up in a port town in Denmark. He became the head chef of a local pub and had attracted the attention of the Nakiri International Company. One day, after hearing rumors of the pub, Alice Nakiri visited the pub. Though Ryō told her that the shop was temporarily closed so he could rest, Alice barged right in. Ryō grabbed her shoulder and told her that she could not be rude since he was a chef of the pub. In fact, despite his young age, the pub owner made Ryō the head chef and he commanded absolute authority in the kitchen, even over the older chefs. Nevertheless, the two eventually formed a bond and Ryō decided to become Alice's partner as she promised to show him the world of cooking. Spending the next few years with Alice, Ryō entered Tōtsuki Culinary Academy middle school section along with Alice as a part of the new 92nd generation. Sometime during their final middle school years, Alice challenged the Cutting Edge RS to a Shokugeki and won. As Ryō helped Alice clean out the Cutting Edge RS' club room the defeated former RS president tried to attack Alice, but Ryō able to stop him with little effort. During the 92nd Generation Orientation Ceremony, Ryō was one of many students attended orientation ceremony for the first year of the High School section of Tōtsuki. He was among the crowd who witnessed Sōma's infamous entrance speech. Plot Tōtsuki Friendship and Rapport Training Camp Main Article:Hellish Training Camp Arc Making it through the first month at Tōtsuki, Ryō along with the other 92nd Generation students were sent to Tōtsuki Resort for the Tōtsuki Friendship and Rapport Training Camp. Ryō made it through the first two days without any problems. Third Day and Breakfast Buffet Challenge Later on the third night, Ryō and the remaining students were summoned to the main hall for a surprise announcement from Gin Dōjima. At 6 AM the next morning, the students will have to create 200 egg breakfast buffet dishes for the Hotel guests. With no time to sleep, Ryō and the other students quickly headed to the kitchens to begin selecting their dishes. Ryō accompanied Alice and the two eventually bumped into Erina Nakiri and Hisako Arato. As the Nakiri cousins exchanged insults, Ryō stood behind Alice, clutching two rubber balls that she had given to him, trying to look as intimidating as he could as Alice had instructed him to do so. The Nakiri cousins soon departed from each other and Ryō continued off with Alice without saying a word to Erina or Hisako. Later, when Alice decided to watch Sōma as he prepared, Ryō continued to accompany her and Alice accidentally bumped into him when she tried to leave. The following day, Ryō completed the task and met up with Alice in Hall "A" as she spoke to Sōma Yukihira and Erina. Alice told Ryō to tell Sōma about her history, but she ended up doing it herself when he was taking too long. After Alice finished telling Sōma what she needed to, Ryō quickly left the hall as the next assignment for the day was about to start. By the end of the fifth day, most of the students were extremely exhausted from the grueling camp. However, Dōjima announced that the 628 students that had made it to the end of the fifth day had passed the camp. Their final event was a lavish banquet prepared by the Tōtsuki Alumni. Ryō once again accompanied Alice for the banquet and the next day, Ryō packed up his belongings and returned to the academy. Tōtsuki Autumn Election Main Article: Tōtsuki Autumn Election Arc Shortly before the summer break, Ryō and Alice gathered with the rest of their classmates to see who had been selected to participate in the 43rd Annual Tōtsuki Autumn Election. Unsurprisingly Alice had been selected and assigned to the "B" Block while Ryō had been selected as well, but placed in the "A" Block. Alice told Ryō that it was expected for him to make it into the preliminaries and told him not to lose in the preliminaries. Ryō assured her that even if she were to face her, he would try to win, despite Alice's annoyance by his statement. The Nakiri Cousins's Vacation Main Article:Natsuyasumi no Erina During the summer break before the preliminaries, Ryō accompanied Alice on an outing to a local pool to relax. Alice invited Erina to hang out for the day. During their day at the pool, Ryō sat on a pool chair, watching the Nakiri cousins play as he guarded their belongings. As several of the local boys wanted to go and talk to the Nakiri cousins, Ryō put on a tight swimcap, causing his "mad dog" persona to emerge, scaring away the boys. After observing the cousin's day at the pool, Ryō noted that the two have a good relationship, despite the outward conflict they show. Tōtsuki Autumn Election: Preliminary Round It's 1 month has passed after the announcement, Ryō is among the 60 participants and ready for the Autumn Elections along with Alice As the 60 participants students hustle their feet to the scene, Ryō would bid Alice farewell and going to the Block A. During the Autumn Election, Ryō would concentrated in making his first curry with his ingredients ready. Then in the sudden, he wore his bandana and begin his aggressive cutting the lobsters in sheer minutes. His sudden change of personality not just shocked any rival participants around him, including Ikumi Mito who has just made her miscalculation about him, but gotten an impression and surprise from the crowd of spectators. His brutish presentation was caught attention from Natsume Sendawara, the head judge of the Block A Stadium. It is judgement time and Ryō begin to present the dish to the judges which Natsume continuous to eat the dish and indulged it. As the judges, including Natsume who taste the food for the second time, Kurokiba would tell the judges that he used the high class Cognac wine for the dish. Before he is given his final score, Kurokiba is once again switches his personality and tell the judges to hold their horse yet. He would introduce the real deal of the dish is the additional Cognac drop and slurping the lobster brain as the main attraction of the dish. Just as Natsume refuses to comply due to the eating method is way too vulgar, he sadistically confronts Natsume and berates that her pride would be her undoing since the sensation of the food was too hard to be resisted; further pressure the First Curry Queen to make another taste of the food. After he reached 93 points as his final score and he was in the first place in Block A, Kurokiba claimed that the event is too soft compared to his past experience, while set his sight towards Sōma and friends (Ryōko Sakaki, Shun Ibusaki, Zenji Marui and Ikumi Mito) as he tends to prove his score as his strong message to Yukihira Genius about his true caliber before he took off his bandana and revert to his gloomy self. Kurokiba continued to observed the judgement until Akira Hayama broke his record with his 94 points, subsequently he ranked 2nd. Even he know that Alice would be disappointed to his recent presentation, Ryō remained composed as he is relief that he is qualifying to the Main Tournament, though he found his presentation would left Alice disappointed until his score tied with Sōma. Together with Akira, Sōma and the unnamed student, Ryō is advances to the Main Tournament. Tōtsuki Autumn Election: Main Tournament The day before the first round of the Main Tournament, Ryō was summoned to Tōtsuki HQ. He is then found out the theme of the match was a ramen dish and that his first opponent was Megumi Tadokoro. Satoshi Isshiki informed them that they will prepare the noodles for their ramen for them and they would only have to choose the style they wanted the noodles to be. Ryō wasted no time by instantly chose the wide noodles. While Satoshi asked for his confirmation, Ryō answered that he was set on his choice. As the first match between Alice and Sōma concluded, Ryō was already backstage, queuing for his match. As Alice entered, upset from her loss, Ryō told her that her Temari Bento was too pretty and lacked the impact to "subdue" the judges. Though Alice angrily told him to know his place, Ryō reminded her that he has won more cooking battles than she has. As Ryō entered the arena, he immediately donned his bandanna as the match began. During the match, Ryō used a variety of fish leftovers as the dashi for the soup, which caused the crowd to believe that he was making a seafood ramen. Later, he was shown crushing lobster and shrimp shells for his stock. In the stands, Megumi's supporters were cheering loudly for her, causing Ryō to feel disgusted by the display. He further told Megumi that such sentiments were a weakness for a chef and called such bonds "trash". Megumi defended her friends and told him not to insult them, but Ryō continued to glare at her, causing her to flinch. Meanwhile, to enhance their ramen experience, the judges left their tables to visit both Ryō and Megumi's kitchen areas. Ryō vigorously finished preparing his noodles and topped his ramen bowl with rusk, causing great interest from the audience. Ryō presented his ramen dish first which he called Soup De Poisson Ramen. The judges were overwhelmed by the strong impact of his fusion dish. Upon closer inspection, Ryō revealed that the smashed lobster shells became a powder to enhance the flavor of his dish throughout each of the ingredients used. Though Ryō's dish caused most of the judges to submit, the last judge, Senzaemon Nakiri, still stood unfazed. Ryō's Ramen faced Senzaemon directly and impressed him enough to strip without making a single movement. Senzaemon commended his strength and admired his courage. Up in the stands, many of the cullinary guests in the audience began sending aides to begin to scout Ryō. Though Ryō's dish immediately removed all attention away from Megumi, she continued to cook unfazed and finally presented after Ryō's presentation. As Megumi's dish began its judging round, the judges were amazed by the depth of her flavor despite the elegant, simple appearance. Ryō became interested enough to ask for a sample of her ramen as he handed her a sample of his. One taste caused Ryō to realize her hidden strength beneath her physical shortcomings. He acknowledged that Megumi was a worthy opponent and declared that he will not lose to her. As the judging for Megumi's dish concluded, Senzaemon took out his brush to declare the winner. Ryō's name was written, meaning that he would advance to the semifinals while Megumi was eliminated from the tournament. Cooking Style *'Seafood' - Ryō has great knowledge in the usage of seafood, most notably crustaceans, mainly lobsters. He has demonstrated great skill with a knife, able to crush Lobster shells with it and even cut them with extreme precision. The true extent of his skills has barely been shown, however, Alice has recognized his skill and it is noted that Ryō apparently has more cooking duel wins between the two. Growing up in a port town in Denmark, Ryō became an infamous individual as the head chef of a pub at a young age. His skill allowed him to command complete authority over the adult staff as his cooking was vastly superior to theirs. Dishes *'French Curry Lobster Rice with Cognac' - Ryō's curry dish involved with lobster and cognac, a French alcohol. The cognac in particular was the highest quality, giving the dish the impression of the woods. However the dish was not done just from the initial appearance. He encouraged the judges to eat the spiny lobster's brain with droplets of cognac. This final part of the dish sent the head judge, Natsume Sendawara's mind into space! *'Soup De Poisson Ramen' - Ryō's Ramen dish combines French Cuisine's Soup De Poisson with ramen to create a fusion dish that is both hearty and full of impact. Adding a generous coating of smashed dried crustacean shells, the dish's rich flavor is an instant knockout to those who eat it and can even cause the Food's Demon King to strip without a single movement. Cooking Duel Records Autumn Election Record Trivia *If written in Kanji, Ryō's name can mean "coolness". Kurokiba translates to Black Lumberyard. *Although he made his full appearance in Chapter 28, his name has only been revealed at Chapter 53, 25 chapters after his proper debut. Prior to this, Kurokiba was often addressed as Alice's Partner. *Prior to his official debut, Ryō made a cameo appearance during the opening ceremony at Chapter 4 in a prototype of his current design. His hair was much tidier, he had a bandage across the bridge of his nose, and he wore a yin-yang necklace. References Navigation Category:Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Tōtsuki Autumn Election Participant Category:Tōtsuki Culinary Academy Students Category:Students Category:92nd Generation Students